IRSES for bringing together renowned international scholars

Narratives play an increasingly important role in (online) communication about health issues. News reporters not only report the cold facts about an upcoming epidemic, but also increasingly employ techniques that are used in novels and movies; serious games use interactive storytelling techniques to improve the health of children; health campaigns use celebrities androle models in order to convince a target audience to adopt healthy habits.

In spite of their increasing use, relatively little is known about the effects of narratives in a health communication context, as expertise on narratives is scattered across different disciplines.

The objective of the HealthNar program is

to strengthen and consolidate the emerging field of narrative healthcommunication and

to establish a flourishing and solid multidisciplinary research exchange network on narratives and health.

The program does so by bringing together renowned international scholars from health psychology, media psychology, health communication, arts, and interactive communication:

Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands

University of Antwerpen, Belgium

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Universitaet Linz, Austria

Universitaet Augsburg, Germany

Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia

Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA

From Radboud University, the HealthNar program is initiated by Enny Das. The program is founded by the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES). The period is 3 years and may start in 2014.